Nov 29, 2007

So the Plumb family has been developing some traditions that seem to continue from year to year. We got and put up our tree yesterday. We found it at a great place, but on accident. We were going to go and cut it across town, but Tone thought he saw a sign somewhere else closer, so we tried to find this imaginary place and found another great place a few blocks from home. This brings me to tradition number one: when Tone and I get in the car together, we never drive straight to wherever we are going. It's inevitable, Tone wants to take a shorter route (which isn't) or I read the map wrong. But this tradition led us to a great place! Tradition number two would be wrangling the tree into our lame, *&%@*, tree stand. Always takes a good hour or so to make sure that the tree will stay up without it falling over right when Tone walks out the door to go to work for 5 days, and I am wrangling it myself (this has happened). Tone refuses every year to buy a new one because that costs money when we have a perfectly good one, and so our year begins with him on the floor with a screwdriver, hammer, etc., while I hold, and hold, and hold the tree up. This tradition doesn't seem to change whether we get a 4 foot tree or an 8 footer. Happens every year. This year after some manufactoring a gadget in the garage for the tree stand (I heard the saw going and some banging), I think we might have it!Tradition three: We both do the lights, Tone carefully puts on the ornaments and I do the rest of the house decortations. This year I did the decorations the day before and laid the ornament boxes out in the living room. I told Hunter not to touch. He did fine with me there, but then I went to go sub and left Tone home. I walked into ripped ornament boxes. Apparently, Hunter couldn't wait to see them. I don't blame him, they are mostly airplanes, and motorized things that go. I found a tiny hat with bear ears next to the ripped boxes. Somewhere on our tree a bear is missing his ears and hat. We were unable to figure out which ornament that was.Tradition four: Every year, I let Hunter pick his own ornament, and try to find a unique airplane ornament for Tone. Ainsley got her first Christmas one this year. Half of our ornaments are airplanes and one year will we have enough for two trees - one with all the airplanes! This year, Hunter picked a hotwheels car ornament. I hung it right next to the Dora with the pink tutu that he picked out last year. I pride myself that I let him pick that one out and that I am a good mom and knew that I could ride out his fascination with sparkly pink. See, he did. However, when he is 17, I will be sure to point that one out to his girlfriend.Which brings me to our last decorating tradition: Super glue. Yes. Usually while Tone is artfully hanging ornaments, I am happily supergluing ornaments back together that didn't survive the last year. This year was no exception. While Hunter and Daddy happily put on ornaments, I was humming to myself and supergluing, heads, feet, wheels, and wings back on our ornaments. We have a lot of plastic ornaments which are made up of tiny parts which fall off frequently. Isn't this a happy family picture? The one exception as I stated above was Hunter's casualty which is missing his ears and hat. I let the two "type A" boys hang the ornaments, because even Hunter started pointing out places that had a hole and needed an ornament. Most kids hang them right around the bottom, but not Hunter. He would stand back, study the tree and tell Daddy where the good spot was. Tall or low. My job: Glue faster. My ornaments where needed.Today, I woke up to eight feet of glory standing in our living room and more happy tree memories to be contined into the next year.

Nov 27, 2007

Hunter has been napping great. It ended today, and I had to tell him to get back in bed three times. The last time I heard the door open I yelled without looking, "GET BACK IN BED." I heard a small voice say, "I can't Mommy, I have a yoyo stuck to my finger." He came out trailing a yoyo behind him and the loop stuck on his thumb which he had straight up in the air. I was laughing so hard, I really had a hard time getting the string off his little blue thumb.

Nov 20, 2007

Things I won't miss when Hunter turns four:1. Being woken up in the morning with Hunter sticking a magnifying glass near my eye saying, "AHA! An Eye!"2. Doing laundry in my bedroom and hearing a loud clunk. I found Hunter with the heavy bar stool pulled all the way down the hallway. He was standing on it, on tiptoes, reaching his craft shelf and pulling down the heavy box of playdough. I caught it just before it/he fell. I didn't realize he had the strength to move it that far.3. Yesterday I was cleaning up my bedroom and I heard Hunter come crying about smashed finger. He had shut it in the sliding glass door while pulling his trike inside. It was sitting in the middle of the living room floor. He said he wanted to race Ainsley in her race car (which is her walker). 4. I was taking a shower and Hunter said that her race car was broken and there was an accident. I got out and he showed me his toy shelf totally dumped over. "Here is my accident Mommy." His explanation, "Ainsley's car broke when I ran over the pillows and I was trying to get a hammer to fix it, and I pulled the hammer out and the whole shelf fell down." Translation: Hunter was sitting/running in Ainsley's walker, rammed it over Ainsley's boppy pillow, tipped it over, fell out, thought it was broken, went to get his toy hammer to fix it, couldn't get it out of the toy bin, and jerked the shelf over spilling all his toys while trying to get it out. 5. Standing up on top of Ainsley's walker - fully. Ainsley was in it by the way.6. He ran away from me for the first time in a store. I have him trained to stick right by me. However, I was not interested in visiting the toy car aisle. Hunter had never been in this store. I turned around and he was gone. I found him in the car aisle on the other side of the store. Though we had never been in this store before, he had made a beeline straight for it and couldn't figure out why I didn't know where he was. How he found the aisle since it was in the back corner, I'll never know.All this happened this week. I think I'll move to Australia. Dr. Dobson lies I think. I read the book "The Strong-Willed Child", have been consistent and firm, and have tried many strategies. Not one has worked yet. Someday....

Things I hope Hunter never outgrows1. Saying I love you2. Snuggling with me.3. His kisses4. His zest for life5. His determination6. His precociousness7. His willingness to help with anything8. His imagination

Obviously Hunter didn't get the idea yesterday. Today, was much worse. Hunter came into my room this morning and I heard Ainsley crying in her crib. He asked if he could say "HI" to her (which I like because he entertains her for a few minutes in the morning). A couple of minutes later, I heard her screaming. I ran in there and found Hunter SITTING in the crib talking happily to her. I think he just scared her getting in. She was fine. I noticed a black streak under his eye."Hunter, what is that on your face, that black stuff?" I asked."Your stamps Mommy!" I freaked out and ran to the office where I had been scrapbooking the night before. He found my tub of stamps (which had been pushed way back on the desk) and in there was a single black stamp pad about an inch square. Brand new, full of ink. He took it apart and got the sponge out and had a field day. He got handprints on my white chair, all over my other scrapbooking stuff, the floor, and then proceeded to stamp my floor. Neat perfect little squares again. ON THE CARPET! He then stamped his cars, and when that was done, walked all over the house putting handprints on things. He got into the stickers on the counter for going potty and put handprints down the counter. All over his stool (so he could reach the stickers), and on the doorjams to Ainsley's room. I lost it a little bit and marched to his room, spanked him (don't turn me in, it wasn't that hard, just enough to sting a bit), and told him that since he stamped his cars, they were now mine for a long time. Hunter eat, sleeps, and breathes cars, so this was a big deal to him. Again, guess who is staying in his room for the morning? Someday I will break through that will of his. I am more stubborn than he is.I am selling a cute, devious, 3-year-old boy for cheap. Any takers? No? Oh well, maybe Ainsley will turn out easier.PS. It was luckily washable ink so it came right up, and Tone says that the paint on the patio wears off fairly quickly. Hunter is systematically destroying my new house. By the way, he never did any of this stuff when we lived in a rental.

Nov 19, 2007

My nice new beautiful patio....ruined by Hunter already. Took him only three days of a finished nice backyard....I sent him out to play and he found the jar of primer that is used to put PVC pipes together. It's dark, bright purple, quick-drying and doesn't really come off of anything....I went out and found two neat rows of purple three-year-old handprints going down my patio and a large puddle. I managed to get one row and the puddle mostly up before it dried. The other row....I gotta find something strong to get it up and a lot of prayer. I scrubbed with a wire brush and strong soap for a loooong time.He is currently sitting in his room for the rest of the day. I put his potty chair in there even. I'm done.PS. The funny thing is that when it was poured, Tone didn't want them putting their hands in it for resale value. How about purple paint handprints going right up the middle, eh?

Nov 18, 2007

We were eating at Baja Fresh after church, and Tone and I were talking and not really paying attention to Hunter. All of a sudden he looks at us and was super excited and said, "Hey! There's PIRATES in here! LOOK Mommy!" He was turned around and pointed to the people behind us. I am sure they heard him.Unfortunately, it was actually two middle eastern men with beards and turbans on.When I explained that it was actually men from another country who wear special hats, he said, "So...are they pirates, or what?"

Nov 15, 2007

So Tone finished laying the sod today. He worked hard until after dark, but we now have a very nice lawn in the back instead of dirt. He was super tired so he went to go take a bath. I told Hunter not to bug him, but of course, he did. I was doing the dishes and didn't hear Hunter, so I knew right where to find him. I went in and found Hunter perched on the edge of the tub in deep conversation with Daddy. Tone said he came in and sat down and was real quiet for a while. Then Hunter said, "So, Daddy,....how was the airplane ride?"Has he heard me talk to Daddy like this everyday and was thinking this was the proper way to start a conversation?

Nov 13, 2007

So putting in a backyard with a baby and a three-year-old is a treat. We bought 7 yards of compost dirt that we had to wheel barrow into our backyard and spread. The dirt is black, black, black. Guess what color Hunter has been all week?! FYI: that much dirt is about 100 wheel barrow loads. I had to finish up quite a bit of it yesterday while Tone was gone so that we could lay the sod when he comes back tomorrow. Hunter followed me around with his little wagon while I dumped and spread load after load. He stepped in my piles, on my shovel, ran his wagon over my rake while I was spreading, dumped trash on the dirt, and generally tried to wreck havoc....all the while keeping up a running commentary for me. He carefully arranged trash on my pile right before I went to spread it. He told me he was setting out his "good-night snack" of ice cream and cookies. This is wishful thinking since he never gets one. I asked him to pick it up and he went around saying, "come 'ere litta fella, hey, litta fella." After about 4 hours of this, Ainsley started screaming from her seat on the porch. The neighbors over the back fence were working in their yard too all afternoon. When I told Hunter we were going in, I heard a quiet "Yay!" whispered from behind the fence. I am willing to bet they don't have children, but I felt the same way.P.S. I heard Hunter giggling with Ainsley and her making happy noises in the other room this evening. My mother's heart was warmed to hear them interacting so nicely. Then I went to see. Hunter was giving Ainsley his little dirty black toe (remember the black dirt from outside?) to suck on and giggling while she happily chewed on it. *sigh* My mother's heart will never be the same.

Nov 3, 2007

Tone and I were working in the yard putting in trenches for our sprinkler system while Hunter was taking his nap. He opened the door and came out WITH HIS SHOES ON! He announced that he put them on himself (which he had done perfectly). You have no idea why this is such a big day and why I am blogging about it unless you have put shoes on a little kid before. Enough said. I am praying this continues.PS. As a mom and former kindergarten teacher: Only a moron would buy shoes for children under 7 with laces. Hunter's has velcro.